Corruption in Milwaukee City Hall

Even in the best of circumstances, it's hard to beat City Hall.

But try taking on the bureaucracy in court when a city agency is doling out cash to a firm co-owned by the judge.

That's the situation faced recently by a Milwaukee nightclub.

In truth, the owners of Texture were doing quite well in their legal squabble with the city.

In August, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Charles Kahn Jr.ruled that the Common Council had exceeded its authority by refusing to renew the liquor license for the Walker's Point nightclub. Kahn even called into question the process the city uses for issuing alcohol and liquor licenses.

"This undid years of city practice," said David Halbrooks, a former assistant city attorney who represents the nightclub.

It was an unexpected outcome for a dance club with a questionable track record.

But the victory didn't last long.

On Sept. 15 - a month after the court ruling - a city committee awarded a $50,000 grant to a firm owned by Kahn and his wife to fix up the front of a building they own. Kahn's wife had submitted the application two weeks earlier.

The veteran judge immediately disclosed the conflict.

Kahn explained that he would recuse himself from the case because he and his wife got the grant, in effect, from the defendant. The only way he'd consider staying on, he said, was if he was asked to do so by the opposing parties.

The nightclub owners, who had received the favorable ruling, agreed.

They said they trusted the judge to remain impartial.

City attorneys balked.

They did so even though it was a city agency that created the conflict by awarding the grant.

The result: Kahn is off the case - and Milwaukee officials are off the hook. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Mayor Makes up Headlines for Attack Ad

It may be a politician’s dream to determine the headlines that go on the front page of the morning newspaper.

In a new attack ad, Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Tom Barrett makes it a reality, using purported replicas of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to slam rival Republican Scott Walker for "mismanagement" of Milwaukee County.

The 30-second TV spot offers a trifecta of complaints: wasted money, exploding debt and shoddy oversight of county operations. The ad aims to undercut a main Walker selling point -- his fiscal management as Milwaukee County executive.

In the ad, the narrator declares "the headlines ... tell the story."

But do they?

Instead of using shots of actual newspapers, Barrett’s ad creates a computer-generated version of the Journal Sentinel’s front page and places various headlines at the top of the page -- regardless of where the stories actually appeared. There are a host of other tricks involved: Headlines and allegations are mismatched for effect and photos of Walker are added to amplify his role and responsibility in each item.

In response, Walker has issued a statement saying he is "exploring legal action" based on the ad. The Journal Sentinel has complained to the Barrett campaign about the false and misleading headlines associated with its trademark, said Editor Martin Kaiser. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Don't Expect to see this again

Obama Attacking FOX News again

THAT ‘DESTRUCTIVE’ NEWS CHANNEL: President Obama tells Rolling Stone in an interview that Fox News has a political perspective that is “destructive” to the country.

Here’s the full quote:

“The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition. It is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It's a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world. But as an economic enterprise, it's been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his number-one concern is, it's that Fox is very successful.” - Politico Story

I guess he hasn't taken a look at the politics of MSNBC, CNN, many of the Main Steam News agencies. Oh wait, they lean far toward his point of view. The problem he is facing is that FOX has a huge following which means many in America follow more closely to their viewpoint than the others.

Obama Trying to Sell his Agenda to Democratic Voters

(CBS/AP) Admonishing his own party, President Barack Obama says it would be "inexcusable" and "irresponsible" for unenthusiastic Democratic voters to sit out the midterm elections, warning that the consequences could be a squandered agenda for years.

"People need to shake off this lethargy. People need to buck up," Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone in an interview to be published Friday. The president told Democrats that making change happen is hard and "if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place."

The midterm elections are in five weeks and polling shows that Republicans, out of power at the White House and on Capitol Hill, have a much more excited base of supporters than Democrats. Mr. Obama, campaigning this week in four states, is in a sprint to restore the voter passion that helped him win office.

Yet in his attempt to light a fire under supporters, Mr. Obama comes across as fired up himself about how many backers fail to acknowledge the progress he sees. He said the glass-half-empty view among many progressive voters can be a debilitating force that distracts them from the real worry: Republicans.

The GOP is poised to win seats in the House, if not control of the chamber, and gain ground in the Senate, too.

"It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election," Mr. Obama said.

The president has been telling Democrats to "wake up" and recognize that he and the Democratic-run Congress have delivered on promises, from a new health care law to tougher rules for Wall Street to more aid for college students. Mr. Obama wants disenchanted supporters to see that Republican wins in November would undermine the ability of Democrats to get the unfinished business done, from climate change legislation to allowing gays to serve openly in the military.

What emerges in the magazine story is a stern, lecturing tone from Mr. Obama. - CBS News Story

Obama Seeking Expansion in Wiretapping Authority

The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services -- such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype -- to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday.

National security officials and federal law enforcement argue their ability to eavesdrop on terror suspects is increasingly "going dark," The New York Times reported, as more communication takes place via Internet services, rather than by traditional telephone.

The bill, which the White House plans to deliver to Congress next year, would require communication service providers be technically capable of intercepting and decrypting messages, raising serious privacy concerns, the Times said.

The proposal has "huge implications" and poses a test to the "fundamental elements of the Internet revolution," vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, James Dempsey, told the Times.

"They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function," he was quoted as saying. - FOX News Story

A significant majority of voters are considering voting against President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, expressing sour views of his new health care law and deep skepticism about his ability to create jobs and grow the sluggish economy, according to the latest POLITICO / George Washington University Battleground Poll.

Only 38 percent of respondents said Obama deserves to be reelected, even though a majority of voters hold a favorable view of him on a personal level. Forty-four percent said they will vote to oust him, and 13 percent said they will consider voting for someone else. - Politico Story

NY Times trying to Sway the Election

The heat is on Republican leader John Boehner.

Liberal media outlets are trying to smear the highest-ranking Republican in the House just weeks before the midterm elections with a deal-breaking scandal before he has a chance to take the speaker's chair from Nancy Pelosi.

A blogger from liberal Web site The Daily Kos pierced through Boehner's security detail at yesterday's unveiling of his leadership policy "Pledge to America" to ask if he was sleeping with a lobbyist from the Printing Industries of America.

The congressman ignored the pesky blogger with a flip camera and kept moving to his fleet of black Suburbans.

AP

John Boehner

The lobbyist who was named in the confrontation and then was contacted by he Daily Kos blogger Lisbeth Lyons denied the accusations. "As you can imagine, I was stunned by such a question," Lyons said. "I found it to be highly insulting, particularly as a female political professional, as well as unfounded. Beyond that, I have no further comment on the matter."

Insiders on Capitol Hill are buzzing about an upcoming New York Times exposé that will detail an alleged Boehner affair. Sources say the Times is looking for the right time to drop the story in October to sway the election, similar to how the Times reported during the 2008 presidential campaign on an alleged John McCain affair that supposedly had taken place many years before and that was flatly denied by the woman in question. - NY Post Story

Here we go again. Media outlets that are trying to help win the election. My guess is that this will be just like the McCain story they ran. No founded evidence, just a bunch of stories to get people to doubt. They don't care if it is true or not.

DOJ Ignoring Civil Rights Claims by White Victims?

The Justice Department is ignoring civil rights cases that involve white victims and wrongly abandoned a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party last year, a top department official testified Friday. He called the department's conduct a "travesty on justice."

Christopher Coates, former voting chief for the department's Civil Rights Division, spoke under oath Friday morning before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, in a long-awaited appearance that had been stonewalled by the Justice Department for nearly a year.

Coates went in depth about a controversial decision to dismiss charges against New Black Panther members after they were videotaped outside a Philadelphia polling place in 2008 dressed in military-style uniforms and allegedly hurling racial slurs while one brandished a night stick.

The case has drifted in and out of the limelight over the past year as the commission has struggled to investigate it. Ex-Justice official J. Christian Adams fueled the controversy when he testified in July and accused his former employer of showing "hostility" toward cases that involve white victims and black defendants.

Nearly three months later, Coates backed up Adams' claims. In lengthy and detailed testimony, he said the department cultivates a "hostile atmosphere" against "race-neutral enforcement" of the Voting Rights Act. - FOX News Story

Democrats Hold Tax Cuts until After Election

Senate Democrats huddled behind closed doors for one hour on Thursday trying to figure out what to do about the expiring Bush tax cuts. With no consensus emerging, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., decided to postpone a vote until after the election.

"Democrats believe we must permanently extend tax cuts for the middle-class before they expire at the end of the year, and we will.," Reid spkesman Jim Manley said in a written statement that blamed the GOP for the delay. "Democrats will not allow families in Nevada and across the country to suffer or be held hostage by Republicans who would rather give tax giveaways to millionaires and corporations that ship jobs overseas. We will come back in November and stay in session as long as it takes to get this done."

Sen Chris Dodd, D-CT, told reporters, "I think there are strong views being held. I, for one, subscribe to the notion that we ought to have a vote to extend the tax cuts for those that really need them and stop those for the ones who don't," Dodd said, but he quickly added, "There's a mixed view. Tax policy is not our strongest political argument with the national public. We know that. It's a divided caucus. That's not uncommon." - FOX News Story

This is all convenient for the Democrats. They are blaming the Republicans for holding up the Tax Cuts, but the truth is that many Democrats know that a vote right now would spell doom for them. So their plan is to blame the Republicans and then hold the vote after the election when they have nothing to lose.